Railroad-switch.



No. 764,166. PATENTED JULY'5, 1904. F. T. TROUTMAN & A-. GONZALEZ.

RAILROAD SWITCH.

APPLICATION FILED MAB. 29, 1904.

N0 MODEL.

HvE-ri'rozfp.

MDMM L mmm llNiTED .STATES Patented July 5, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

FLETCHER T. yTROUTMAN AND ALBERT GONZALEZ, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNORS OF ONE-HALF TO PAUL H. MUSKAT, OF

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

RAILROAD-SWITCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 764,166, dated July 5, 1904.

Application led March 29, 1904. Serial No. 200,611. (No model.)

T0 all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, FLETCHER T. TROUT- MAN and ALBERT GONZALEZ, citizens of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Railroad-Switches, of which the following is a specification.

The object of our invention is to enable a switch to be thrown by an operator upon a moving car, and thereby save time of stopping the car and going ahead of the same to turnl the switch, so that the car will move onto the side or switch track. We accomplish this object by the mechanism described herein, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a side elevation of a portion of the end of a car equipped with that portion of our switching device which is attached to the car and of a fragment of a railroad-track, showing portions of the switch operating mechanism of the track-switch. Fig. 2 is a cross-section on the line 2 2 of Fig. l looking in the direction of the arrow. Fig. 3 is an edge elevation of the trip-wheel. is a plan of a portion of the end of the switch, showing its connection with the main track and with the mechanism at the end of the switch whereby the same is thrown.

In the drawings, A represents the car-body, mounted upon the ordinary truck B, which truck is provided with a supporting-bar C, through which passes the standard D, the lower end of which is bifurcated below the supporting-bar, forming arms D', in which are mounted the trip-wheel E. A bell-crank lever F is mountedA in bearings G, secured to the truck. The long arm of the bell-crank lever is provided with a slot F', through which passes rod H, which rod also passes through the top of standard D and through slot I of bell-crank lever I, which last bell-crank lever is pivotally mounted upon the end of supporting-bar C. Between the arms of these bell-crank levers and 'the supporting-bar is a spring J, which normally holds the trippingwheel in its elevated position, as shown in Fig. 4L

suitable compressed-air supply. (Not shown.)

P represents the main rails of the railwaytrack, between which is the supporting-block Q, to which is pivotally connected bell-crank lever R, to the long arm of which is secured rod S. To the short arm of this last bellcrank lever is connected a link T, the other end of which is connected to the tongue U of the switch-rail V. At each side of the switch and at a suiiicient distance therefrom to enable the car or a train of cars to be turned upon the switch are the tripping-levers W,v

which are mounted upon supports X. These trippinglevers are substantially in shape bell-crank levers, and the lower ends thereof are connected by links Y to rod S. When the track and switch are in their normal condition, which is with the switch open, the tripping-lever along the main track and which is designed to close the switch has its upper arm in an elevated position, as shown at the left-hand side of Fig. l, while the trippinglever, which lies along the switch-rails and is designed to restore the switch toits normal condition, has its upper arm depressed, as shown on the right-hand side of Fig. l.

In the operation of our device if it is desired to have the car run upon the switch before the car has reached the tripping-lever along the main rail the operator turns the valve N, so as to supply cylinder K withV air, thereby forcing bell-crank lever F to move the tripping-wheel downwardly, so that it will contact with and depress'the upper arm of trip-lever W, thereby through connecting mechanism causing it to operate switch-tongue U into contact with the main rail, so that when the car reaches the switch the tongue will guide it thereupon in the usual manner. The depression of the switch-operating trip-lever will cause the elevation of the upper end of the switch-restoring trip-lever WQ so that when the car reaches it the tripping-wheel will cause it to be depressed, thereby through connecting mechanism opening the switch-tongue to the position shown in Fig. 4, so that if the next car passing on the main line does not desire to go upon the switch it need not do so as the switch is opened.

In case of accident to the air mechanism we have provided a lever a, having its lower end connected to bell-crank lever I by link I). Now when it is desired to operate the switch by means of lever a trip-wheel E can be depressed in the same manner that said tripwheel is depressed by the operation of the air-operated mechanism. In order to insure contact between the trip-wheel and trip-lever, we have provided a guide-plate c, between which and the track-rail the trip-wheel passes when it is depressed, thereby insuring its engagement with the trip-lever. Operating-rod S is protected by a cover d', which is secured to the ties fl, which support the rails of the track as well. This cover is shown in Fig. 2; but in Fig. 1 it is removed for clearness of illustration. Operating-rod S passes over and is guided by rollers e. If desired, the lower ends of the tripping-levers might be connected together by a flexible cable connected thereto and to the bell-crank lever which moves the switch-tongue. By this mechanism it will be seen that we have provlded simple and eficlent means whereby an operator on the car may close a switch so as to cause the car to travel off the main track upon the switch and to open the switch when the car is passing` along the same, so as to restore the switch-track to its original position. It will also be observed that the trip-levers operate to pull the connecting mechanism by means of which the switch is thrown into its closed and into its open position, thereby enabling the use of small connecting-rods or the use of flexible cable.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a railway-switch the combination of a main track and a switch having a movable tongue; a bell-crank lever connected to said tongue; tripping-levers connected to said bellcrank lever and having the upper arms thereof so arranged that when one is depressed the other is elevated; a car; a tripping-wheel secured thereto and held normally out of engagement with said tripping-levers; means to operate said tripping-wheel to bring it into engagement with said tripping-levers.

2. The combination of a railway-car mounted upon trucks; a supporting-arm carried by one of said trucks; a standard vertically movable through said supporting-arm; said standard having the lower end thereof below the supporting-arm bifurcated; a tripping-wheel revolubly mounted in the arm of said standard; a bell-crank lever pivotally secured to said truck; said bell-crank lever having one of its arms slotted and operatively connected to said standard; pneumatic mechanism secured to said car and operatively connected to the short arm of said bell-crank lever in combination with switching mechanism adapted to be operated by said tripping-wheel.

3. The combination of a railway-ear mounted upon trucks; a supporting-arm carried by one of said trucks; a standard vertically movable through said supporting-arm, said standard having the lower end thereof below the supporting-arm bifurcated; a tripping-wheel revolubly mounted in the arms of said standard; a bell-crank lever pivotally secured to said supporting-arm and operatively connected to said standard; a lever secured to said car and operatively connected to the other end of said bell-crank lever; a switch having a movable tongue, a bell-crank lever operatively secured thereto; tripping-levers operatively connected to said bell-crank lever and adapted to lie alternately in the path of movement of said tripping-wheel when in its operative position.

In witness that we claim the foregoing we have hereunto subscribed our names this 17th day of March, 1904.

FLETCHER T. TROUTMAN. ALBERT GONZALEZ.

IVitneSSeS:

G. E. HARPHAM, MARGARETE C. NICKELEsoN. 

